The Lies of a Good Woman
by Impure One
Summary: The betrayal of a loved one can change a person in the most profound ways. It can make someone less trusting, colder and ruthless. Harry learns about betrayal in the most personal and visceral way possible. One-shot.


The Lies of a Good Woman

Harry was woken up by the knife being driven into his chest by a petite figure with long, sanguine hair. Ginny was straddling him, and before Harry could make the slightest sound she drew the knife out of his chest. He watched, stunned, in abject horror as the knife was wrenched free, coated with his gore, bringing spurts of blood out of his chest along with it. It was like a scalding iron poker being taken to his chest and Harry let out a piteous howl.

He tried to move his arms to physically overpower Ginny, but found that the rest of his body wouldn't obey the signals from his brain. The realization that he had been immobilized struck Harry, and a primal fear and panic took hold of him. He let out another earsplitting scream, and Ginny brought the knife down again.

Harry could feel as the blade sliced cleanly, too cleanly, through his skin, and began to sink into the vital organs of his torso. The shock and pain abruptly cut off the scream Harry had been letting out, leaving him without breath.

Ginny didn't take the blade out immediately. Instead, she deftly twisted the handle of the knife in her hands, as if trying to turn Harry's insides into a thick, bloody paste. The knife moved quickly, easily lacerating more of his chest, obviously enchanted to cut more easily and cause more pain, because there was no other explanation for the agony Harry was experiencing. The miasma of pain was proving to be overwhelming, and Harry could feel his vision start to flicker.

Copious amounts of blood were flowing from Harry's chest. He could vaguely feel the warm and sticky fluid undulating down his torso, clinging to his body like a wet blanket. Drifting out of consciousness, Harry was barely aware of the door slamming open and a blood splattered Tonks aiming her wand at Ginny.

Ginny nimbly rolled off of Harry's bloody frame, presciently avoiding the bolt of lavender light that streaked from Tonks's outstretched wand. Ginny drew her wand before Tonks had a chance to fire again and aimed at the window. When the window exploded, the glass didn't shoot outwards. Instead, the glass just randomly flew in every direction, fragments nicking everybody in the room and drawing small rivulets of blood.

Tonks had instinctively covered her eyes when the window exploded and by the time she reoriented herself, Ginny was gone, and Harry had passed out on the bed, a bloody imprint of a hand left on the handle of the knife still sticking out of his chest at an awkward angle.

* * *

"….can't be sure that others weren't affected as well Arthur. Of course you and your family are held in the highest regard, but after what happened, we are being cautious."

"… you think he'll wake up soon Hermione?"

"…the situation continues to deteriorate and he's laying here like a useless sack of…"

Harry abruptly sat up, his back ramrod straight. Automatically, he reached over to the bleached bedside table and snatched his glasses, then slipped them onto his face. The room Harry was in was all white, typical of a hospital, with numerous strange looking machines making loud whirring noises in one corner of the room and an empty chair in the other. There was no one else in the room. Paranoid, Harry grabbed his wand off the bedside table and surreptitiously slipped it underneath the covers to lie next to his leg, a position that allowed him easy access.

A shock of red hair poked its way into his room, and Harry flinched reflexively, reaching a hand down to his wand and grasping it firmly. Ron stared at Harry, clearly uncomfortable, shifting from foot to foot. Harry didn't relax his grip.

"You alright mate?" Ron asked awkwardly, trying to break the growing silence.

"I'm not sure," Harry answered honestly, his throat cracking painfully from lack of water.

They were both quiet for another tense minute. "You're at St. Mungo's," Ron told him. You've been out for a couple of days, and you've missed some stuff. You-Know-Who attacked the Ministry the day after you, well, after you got hurt. Hogwarts and St. Mungo's are really the only safe places left.

Ron opened his mouth to say more, but Harry cut him off. "What happened?" He asked flatly. "What the hell happened? How could she… why?" Harry trailed off, unable to put his question into words.

Ron understood what he was asking. He just didn't have an answer. "We don't know why Ginny attacked you. She was around a bunch of Order members the day before and no one saw any signs of the imperius. It's like," Ron paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts. "It's like she just went cold, picked the people who she knew we loved the most and attacked in the most brutal way. She killed Fleur and Bill," Ron told him, his voice breaking near the end. "Right before their wedding. Just walked into their room and stabbed them. Blood everywhere..." Ron shivered. "All those people got invitations to a wedding, and now they'll be getting invitations to a funeral." Ron had a stricken expression on his face, and he was the most wretched Harry had ever seen him. His eyes were bloodshot and had circles under them. Ron's hands were shoved into his pockets and one hand was fidgeting with his wand roughly, almost angrily.

Harry slowly extracted himself from his sheets and set his feet on the ground. He carefully stood up, taking pains not to move too suddenly and reopen the partially healed wounds on his chest.

Ron was watching Harry, nonplussed, and Harry walked unsteadily over to him and clapped one hand on his shoulder. Harry was unable to close the gap between them to offer more comfort because of his wounds, which only served as a reminder to them both of the betrayal they had suffered.

"Ron," Harry started, suddenly coming to a realization. "Why did Ginny use a knife?"

Ron met Harry's eyes, unease etched on his features. "It's an old pureblood insult. If someone with magic uses a muggle weapon on you, they're saying you're beneath them."

* * *

"This isn't a good idea."

"I know."

"But Harry, we-"

"We move in as soon as Ron tells us what we're up against." Hermione was staring at Harry, frustrated and afraid, while Harry didn't even deign to look at her, focused on the squat stone building in the middle of a grassy plain that ended in a thick, dark forest 100 yards in every direction. The pair was lying down, obscured by the grass which reached toward the sky, several feet tall. An oppressive and unnatural silence thickened the air. No wind rustled the tall grass or swayed the foreboding trees, no birds were chirping, and there was nothing to suggest humans had ever defiled the ground. Nothing except the out of place warehouse sitting in the middle of the grassy field.

Hermione again tried to talk sense in harry. "If the Order finds out we're here we'll practically be under house arrest from now until the end of the war. Not to mention the trouble Fred and George would get in for telling us about this place."

Harry finally turned to acknowledge Hermione, and thanks to the relatively full moon hanging overhead, he could see the pleading expression she had adopted. He let out a mournful sigh; impotent frustration mingled with a profound sadness. "Hermione," he started. "I know you came along to try and talk Ron and me out of this. We appreciate you coming along, for whatever reason. But you have to understand, we need to do this. We _have _to find her; we need answers. For our sake, for her sake, and for Bill and Fleur." Harry looked away from Hermione, his eyes focused steadfastly on the ground.

"Oh Harry," Hermione said, putting her hand on his shoulder supportively. Harry gave no reaction for a moment, and then moved Hermione's hand off his shoulder, still not looking at her.

They heard the grass being parted nearby. Harry drew his wand and rose from his prone position into a tightly coiled crouch, ready to spring in any direction. "It's me," a familiar voice called out. "Ron."

Harry didn't lower his wand until Ron was within sight and Harry could see he was alone. "How does it look?" Harry asked without preamble.

"The place is really poorly lit," Ron warned. "I think there are four of them, but I might not have seen them all or counted someone twice."

"Counted someone twice!" Hermione squawked in indignation.

"It's hard to see in there and they move in and out of the light," Ron told her defensively. But I think there are four." Hermione didn't look appeased, but Harry cut her off.

"We'll make do. We can handle four since we have the element of surprise. We move according to plan, and we watch each other's backs. The most important thing is nobody can get hurt," Harry told them emphatically, staring at them both in turn. "If we head back to the Burrow hurt, they'll know we were up to something and the jig is up. Got it?" They both nodded in the affirmative.

"Alright, let's go." Harry moved forward slowly, still half-crouching, his wand readied, pointing in front of him. Time passed tortuously slow as the trio moved through the tall grass to the warehouse. Their nerves were on end, and every time they heard the slightest noise, they would stop, take up a defensive formation, and wait minutes to start moving again.

Nerves frayed, they stacked up against the thick concrete wall of the building. "There are stacks of boxes around the room," Ron whispered, "and there will be a couple of guys sitting around a table in the middle of the room. They're never all there at one time, so we've got to watch out for the last of them around the room."

Harry nodded, and then moved to the thick double doors that led into the building. He looked at Ron and Hermione, who nodded at him, and pushed open the doors quietly.

Harry immediately took in the room. Dim lamp above table. Three man sitting at table. Playing cards. One man missing. Three stacks of large boxes obscuring parts of the room. Unknown contents.

Acting according to plan, Harry closed his eyes and covered them with one hand while raising his wand in the air with the other and yelling, "_Lumos Maxima_!"

A massive incandescent ball of scorching white light shot from Harry's wand, blinding the Death Eaters in the room. The trio took their hands away from their eyes and unleashed a volley of stunners at the blinded Death Eaters sitting at the table. Two went down easily, hit by stunning charms, but the other flipped the table on its side and ducked behind it.

Ron went charging forward, chaotically spewing a rainbow tinted volley of hexes and curses from his wand. Few impacted the wood, with the majority flying uselessly away from the Death Eater. Hermione moved forward to assist Ron, firing less quickly but more precisely. Ron kept the Death Eater under cover with his onslaught of spells, while Hermione began blowing the table apart with well-aimed blasting curses. The Death Eater leapt from behind his cover and fired a sickly yellow hex in one smooth motion.

Harry deflected the hex with a shield charm before it got close to Ron or Hermione. The two of them kept pressure on the Death Eater, who had taken cover behind a tower of boxes.

Then Harry spotted what he had been looking for since the battle began. A poorly disillusioned Death Eater was sneaking up behind Ron and Hermione, his wand held at the ready. Harry sent a stunner at him. The Death Eater saw the bright light out of the corner of his eye and neatly sidestepped it. Ron and Hermione remained oblivious to the danger behind them as Harry hurriedly rushed in to defend them.

The Death Eater sent a scintillating purple curse at Harry who rolled under it and came up firing off a string of hexes. The Death Eater threw up a shimmering blue shield in the space between them which absorbed the line of hexes before collapsing.

Harry slowly backpedalled with the Death Eater following, his back to Ron and Hermione. Harry dodged and shielded against the line of curses the Death Eater sent at him before covering his face, raising his wand and crying out, "_Lumos Maxima_!" The flash of light blinded both of the Death Eaters who had been staring in Harry's direction, but left Ron and Hermione unaffected.

Ron and Hermione simultaneously fired curses from their wands which blew the Death Eater they were fighting off of his feet and sent him crashing through one of the boxes behind him. The stack of boxes began to wobble precariously, the foundation wrecked by the impact. He laid on the ground for a moment, groaning, until the shaking column of boxes fell on top of him, burying him.

The other Death Eater had reflexively dropped to the ground as soon as he was blinded, narrowly avoiding the curse Harry had sent. Lacking his vision, the Death Eater went for a wide attack and whipped his wand around his body, flames erupting around him.

The ringlets of flame simply coalesced for a moment, gaining in thickness, before exploding violently outwards. Boxes were hit and burst into flames. Harry conjured a thin stone slab in front of him and huddled behind it, the flame dissipating harmlessly against the rock.

Ron and Hermione were not so quick. Hermione had begun to form a shield, but the flames shattered it before it had time to fully form. Ron was struck with the brunt of the flames. He dropped to the ground, screaming in pain as the fires danced on his body, setting his hair alight and burning off his clothing.

Hermione was protected from the worst of the flames by Ron, getting lashes of flames cracked against her legs. She involuntarily fell to the ground, evincing a high-pitched scream.

Harry came out from his cover and saw them lying on the ground, Hermione trying frantically to put the flames on Ron out but unable to cast the spell through her pain. Harry let out an animalistic growl and narrowed his eyes at the Death Eater, who was staggering around the room, trying to find the exit.

The stacks of wooden boxes around the room were burning quickly, forming massive pillars of flames that were letting out unnaturally thick clouds of smoke. The Death Eater dropped to his knees, coughing hard. Harry stalked toward him like a predator, a list of offensive curses running through his mind.

Harry jabbed his wand at the Death Eater and a paltry blue lance of lightning burst forth, striking the Death Eater on his side. He careened through the air before crashing hard against the wall.

Without pausing, Harry sent a barrage of cutting curses at the prone Death Eater, each biting into his body and causing cascading jets of blood to burst into the air, splattering against the wall and ground. Harry continued to stride determinedly toward the Death Eater, who was struggling to rise and escape. The Death Eater was on his knees, and he shakily raised his wand. Harry adroitly blew the wand out of his hand with a disarming charm.

His eyes staunchly gazing at the Death Eater, Harry walked over to him and brought his foot down on his solar plexus. The Death Eater began blubbering, blood and snot coalescing together on his face and dripping as if in slow-motion, only heightening the revulsion Harry felt for him.

Harry dropped to his knees, coming down like a rigid piece of steel. "Where is Ginny Weasley?" He spoke in a lone tone of voice, tremorless, betraying none of what he was feeling. Inside he was a suppressing all of the doubts he had been holding about this trip; the doubts that Hermione had unknowingly given voice to.

The Death Eater gave no response, so Harry rose up to his full height and scrutinized him with an imperious glare. "I'm really, really sure, that if you knew how angry I am right now, you would be talking right now. The last time I was this angry, I was slaying a basilisk. Or maybe, it was when I was single-handedly dueling Voldemort." The Death Eater convulsed a little at that; whether it was out of fear or hearing the name Voldemort was uncertain. "So, I'll give you an ultimatum. You either tell me where Ginny Weasley is now, or I go into your mind with legilimency, tear her location from your mind, and leave you a slobbering vegetable at the doorsteps of the ministry," Harry bluffed."

The Death Eater's voice was weak. "She's at Redburn manor. It's an outpost for the Dark Lord. Please, please don't leave me here. If I die, my daughter has nobody left."

"When I was younger, I was taught that there was a line between right and wrong; a clear line. I know now the futility of trying to see that line and ending up second-guessing myself, wondering if I made the moral choice. If I save you now, you would be drafted right back into Voldemort's service when you would recover. I'm going to be merciful to everyone who would be hurt by you, and leave you here to die."

* * *

Harry was sitting at a mahogany round table in an unused conference room at Hogwarts. Assembled around the table were several members of the Order of the Phoenix. McGonagall was sitting next to him, studiously ignoring him, with her lips pursued and brow furrowed in disapproval. Lupin was sitting on Harry's other side, a blank expression on his face. Harry got the impression that he wasn't particularly pleased. Directly across the table in the last seat was Tonks. She was the most serene of the all; though she was lacking her emblematic smile.

McGonagall began. "We all know that it was absurdly and unnecessarily reckless what you did. As always, you chose the dangerous route instead of using your brain and coming to us instead. I'm not sure whether you find us untrustworthy or incompetent, but there must be something, otherwise you wouldn't insist on consistently taking matters into your own hands."

Taking offense to the tone she was using with him, Harry lashed out. "Do you want to know what I think? I think you would all have been too nervous to actually make a move, deciding that it wasn't worth the risk, and letting Ginny slip away. Again. You all lack the guts to do anything, and if I had told you what I knew, nothing would have come of it and I would have been under watch to prevent me from actually acting."

"So you decided to rush into a fight unprepared, and ended up getting both Ron and Hermione seriously hurt? How is that in any way better?" Whereas McGonagall had been disappointed, Lupin seemed to be genuinely angry. "You're not thinking right," he continued. "You're getting too involved, and that's hurting you and everyone around you." His tone softened. "I know that Ginny's betrayal hurt, it hurt us all. But this isn't the right way to act. You have to trust us."

Tonks was nodding along with Lupin's words, looking satisfied and adding nothing. McGonagall simply continued to stare passively at the table.

Harry's resentment left him as his actions were logically dissected and found lacking in every way. "I'm sorry," he said softly. Lupin gave him a nod, gratified. "I found out where Ginny is now. She's staying at the Redburn estate, which is serving as one of Voldemort's outposts. I believe that it's in our best interests to mount an assault on the manor and retrieve Ginny for questioning." Harry said all of this carefully, gauging the reactions of the people around the table.

Tonks was nodding vigorously in agreement with him. "I've been to Redburn manor before for my job. It's small for a pureblood manor and we shouldn't run into too many Death Eaters. It's worth it for the information Ginny might have." Tonks looked at Lupin, who nodded his head in assent.

"We shall have to move quickly," McGonagall said. "Soon they'll have learned that we have information. As of now, we have the double advantages of numbers and surprise. If we mobilize soon, we should be able to subdue them without loss."

Harry stared ahead grimly, preparing himself for inevitable confrontation.

* * *

The manor yard was empty now except for the two of them. The rest of the combatants were either dead, or had taken to a game of cat and mouse inside the manor itself. When the Order had arrived, they had engaged the few Death Eaters there and Harry had gone hunting for Ginny. Then, anti-apparation wards had gone up and more Death Eaters had arrived. Voldemort had anticipated their attack and battle went from a rout to a relentless fight for survival. Harry later suspected that Voldemort had made sure the location of warehouse was known to Harry so that exact battle would take place.

There were dead strewn all across the dying grass of the manor. Chunks of earth had been ripped up where spells had impacted. The smell of brimstone and feces was in the air. Harry stared at Ginny. In the short time since he had seen her, she had become thin, black robes hanging loosely from her bony frame. It made her seem taller, and the thinness along with the contrast of her skin and air against the robes gave her a sinister appearance. Her words did nothing to disabuse Harry of his newfound notion of her.

"He knew this was unavoidable Harry. He told me you would come for me. I have to say, I think I underestimated your infatuation with me. If I had known it was this severe, perhaps I would have stayed with you longer. You could have made such a wonderful pet."

Ginny's words grated against Harry's ears, emotional anguish turning physical. Tears began to cloud Harry's vision. "Just tell me why? How? We all loved you. I… I loved you."

Ginny's response was cold. "I never saw it all those years. How stupid I was. You're really nothing special are you? The Boy-Who-Lived." Ginny let out a cold laugh, devoid of any amusement. "He'll be so delighted when I bring him your corpse."

Harry couldn't remember much of the battle afterwards. All he retained was flashes of memory, he and Ginny casting spells at one another; her with a determined expression on her face and him anguished. During the course of their duel, the manor had caught on fire. The fire soon spread to the grass, and they were dueling inside a field of flames; Hell incarnate on earth for Harry.

Eventually, Harry had overpowered Ginny, blowing off her hand with a blasting curse. Lacking the ability to act decisively, whether to save her or end her, the fire made the decision for him, engulfing her. Her screams of pain were still ringing in his ears, years later.

Harry didn't know how long he had sat on the ground, the fire still blazing around him, before Tonks exited the husk of a manor and extinguished the conflagration with esoteric chanting and precise movements of her wand.

She saw Harry, and saw Ginny's charred yet recognizable body on the ground. Tonks walked over to Ginny's body and waved her wand over it a few times, muttering to herself. A concerned expression flitted over her face and Tonks patted down Ginny's body. She pulled a fireproof flask out of Ginny's impossibly sized pocket and sniffed it suspiciously.

Tonks hesitantly ambled over to Harry and held out the flask.

"What is it?"

"Amortentia."

"Does that mean….?"

"Yes."


End file.
